BSMG Blog: Protecting the Future of Families and Businesses

With the recovery of the equities markets after the economic downturn of 2008-2009, it is common for successful business owners, professionals, and other individuals to have more than $1,000,000 in their IRA account.

Baby Boomers, the 78 million Americans 50 or older, were born into unprecedented post-war prosperity (the “pig in the python”) and now control 67% of the country's wealth ($28 trillion dollars) and 80% of personal financial assets.*

When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he said; “that is where the money is.”

The sheer size of this generation has been a dominant force in American life since the 1950’s. From the baby food and school construction craze, to the hippies, the yuppies
, the workaholics and the supermoms, the affluence of the baby boomers has made them notoriously adverse to planning for their own retirements. Having come of age during the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam
and Watergate, they tend to have retained high idealism, but perhaps surprisingly are far more loyal to organizations – including financial organizations – than other generations. Read More

When it comes to investment planning, there is a large generational gap between the older folks who still form the bulk of the advisor-client bases, and their children. The parents, having been born in the Depression, or at least the recent memory of it, too often view their kids as spendthrift, credit junkies who can not be trusted to handle their finances.

Despite all the time and effort that’s put into traditional estate planning, the results have been less than remarkable. Research has shown that 70% of a family’s inherited wealth is lost by the first generation of heirs, and 90% is lost by the following generation.*

A traditional approach to estate planning can be passive/aggressive—neither assertive nor interpersonal, but has a major impact on other members of clients' families without their input.